


Through the Dark

by bccalling



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Episode: s11e09 O Brother Where Art Thou, Gen, Season/Series 11
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-12
Updated: 2015-12-12
Packaged: 2018-05-06 09:48:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5412263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bccalling/pseuds/bccalling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean brings Sam home. 11x09 coda.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> I guess this would qualify as a coda to 11x09. More overly emotional crap, as is everything I write. Enjoy!  
> Also, lets all pretend it wasn't partly inspired by One Direction's "Through the Dark." (It's a good song, though, you should listen to it).

 

* * *

_And I will hold you closer_  
_Hope your heart is strong enough_  
_When the night is coming down on you_  
_We will find a way_  
_Through the dark_

* * *

 

                The night Dean brings his brother home—Sam’s body limp and broken against him—they spend the night curled around one another. Sam’s hurting, the emotional kind, and Dean doesn’t know how to fix it. So he holds his little brother close and rocks him, fingers in Sam’s hair and arms wrapped tight around him, while he cradles Sammy’s head in the nook of his shoulder.

                There are tears still drying on Sam’s cheeks, but his breathing is evening out and the fingers clutching tight to Dean are softening. Dean soothes him gently as Sam falls into a restless sleep, Sam’s body constantly seeking out contact with his big brother as his mind tries to ground him in this truth of his freedom from the nightmare he’s suffered.

                Dean doesn’t sleep.

                He holds Sam, tight and desperate, and he vows over and over again—whispered words against Sam’s hair, tears leaking from his eyes—that Sammy will never again feel that pain; that Dean will never, ever let him go back there. Will never let Lucifer close again. Will never let Sammy suffer that pain again.

                “Not while I’m around,” he murmurs, lips pressed close against Sam’s hair.

                Sam sighs, and it’s a kind of content Dean hadn’t expected to hear again for quite some time. It’s there, though, and even if it is a quiet moment in sleep, it gives Dean hope that Sammy might really and truly be okay again one day.

                So Dean gathers Sam even closer, breathes in the scent of his brother’s skin, and refuses to close his eyes.

 

* * *

 

                When Sam wakes, his face is tucked against his brother’s neck, his body cradled against Dean’s chest, and his big brother is staring down at him, eyes wide and wet and terrified.

                “Hey,” Sam croaks out, voice barely audible against the raw pain in his throat. He turns a soft, reverent smile up at Dean. “You saved me.”

                “I will _always_ save you,” Dean whispers, the words catching as he tries desperately to keep himself together. Hands tangle in Sam’s hair, lifting his eyes to Dean’s. “Are you okay, Sammy?”

                Sam pushes himself up on his hands just a bit, so he can look into brother’s eyes more comfortably, and he sees how broken Dean looks—it mirrors how broken Sam feels, really. “I’m sorry, Dean,” Sam whispers as a couple of stray tears slip from his eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

                “No,” Dean shakes his head, blinking hard against the overwhelming rush of emotion he feels as he frames Sam’s face with his hands and strokes away Sam’s tears. “No, Sammy. You don’t have anything to be sorry for. You thought it was the only way—it was all we had—you know I wouldn’t have let you go if I’d thought there was something else, okay? This wasn’t your fault. _None of this_ was your fault. If it’s on anyone, it’s on me. I should have been there. I should have been with you. _I’m_ sorry, Sammy. I’m so, so sorry, and I will never, _ever_ let that monster near you again, I _promise_ you. Not as long as I’m alive.”

                Sam breaks then, tears falling in a rush as he collapses against Dean. Dean wraps himself around Sam, and whispers soothing nothings Sammy hasn’t heard since he was a child.

“Thank you for saving me,” Sam murmurs, voice hushed and broken. “For bringing me home. Thank you. Love you, Dean.”

                “Love you, too, Sammy. Always.” Dean smiles sadly. Knows how broken Sam is, and wants nothing more than to hold him and protect him from every moment of pain. Dean knows it’s going to take time for Sam to really be okay again. He knows how Lucifer had destroyed his brother the first time around, and for Sam to have experienced that trauma again... Dean knows it will take time for his brother to even begin to heal.

                But Sammy’s here. Sammy’s lying beside him, wrapped up in Dean’s arms. Sam’s warm, and alive, and whole.

                And Dean will stop at nothing to keep his little brother safe, to make Sammy better again.

 

* * *

 


End file.
